Where there's smoke there's fire: Booker's buddy lines his pockets

Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerRaise your hand if you're a mayor who just gave a buddy a sweetheart deal, and if you're a former fire director that had his pension sweetened overnight. (That's Newark Mayor Cory Booker and his new adviser, David Giordano, by the way.)

It’s good to have friends in high places, especially those who can write you fat checks out of the public’s checkbook. People like Newark Mayor Cory Booker, for instance.

On Nov. 30, David Giordano, Booker’s buddy, was sworn in for his second term as fire director at $181,000 a year. He took an oath to protect Newark residents for the next four years, but it was a charade. The next day, he retired.

A week later, Booker hired him as an $88,000-a-year adviser to help cut fat out of the city budget. The irony is — pardon the pun — rich.

A guy who duped taxpayers into paying him more in semiretirement than he ever made while working for them, is going to huddle with a mayor, who was an accomplice in the ruse, and together they will mastermind ways to save taxpayers money, presumably in the fire department. Maybe it takes a guy gaming the system to catch a guy gaming the system.

Here’s a money-saving idea (and we’re just brainstorming here): How about Giordano giving back the $28,000-a-year pension bump he earned, basically by taking the oath he never intended to fulfill.

The rapid-fire job moves helped Giordano boost his annual pension from $90,000 to $118,000, and with his new job in Booker’s inner circle, he is earning a total of $206,000 a year — when cops are being laid off and city employees lucky enough to keep their jobs are suffering through pay-slashing furloughs.

Booker has fought the charge that he is a detached Ivy League guy and celebrity schmoozer who has no idea what life is like on the streets of Newark. This isn’t going to help his elitist image.

What kind of adviser has Booker bought for 88 grand? One who can’t even come up with a believable cover story. Giordano denied he had hoodwinked council members: “I wasn’t sure if I was retiring or not,” he said. So, he wants us to believe he made that decision overnight.